The end is near!

It's a light and it's at the end of the tunnel! Alright ya'll want perspective now don't ya? I have been a part of a nation wide rescue, FBRN, for about 4 years now. From before I left San Diego (3 years ago) I was asked to help with the review crew and back then I fostered too. In the ~4 years I've been with them I have fostered something like 4 dogs and have had issues with the regime and no longer foster for them anymore. Well that's almost true, I'd foster if and only if 1 person in the rescue asked me too. And the only reason I'd do it for Eilene is because that last monster foster from hell I almost took to get euthanized (seriously I was going to kill this dog) was taken off my hands by her. This dog was fine, as long as we weren't anywhere near each other. This dog and I did not get along and I swear to God I had no idea it could be a normal dog. If Eilene had not recruited her neighbor to fly into my city and fly her back to Colorado that dog would be dead by now. Turns out that dog was fine, just needed someone else. Someone other than me, and thank God we found out before I killed her. I have never ever met a dog I truly hated. Trust FBRN to dump one on me and run. No it was not Eilene's job to get this dog a new foster home, she's just an angel and managed through some act of kindly neighbors to take her into her home. So for her I would do just about anything, even take a foster off her hands. Serious, her and only her.

Eilene is also in charge of the review crew. It's the small small group of volunteers who go through each and every application that comes in for all of our dogs and decide which ones get passed on to the foster parent for her to pick a forever home. It's a thankless job and really all we're doing is picking out the raving morons. If the dog's bio says no kids ya know what? Don't apply if you have 3 kids and are due to give birth to triplets. I shit you not peeps, this is the drivel we have to sift through. Each dog can get up to like 150-200 applications. HELLO how much free time do you think we want to volunteer for the morons who can't read? Out of 200 applications often there are less than 20 that meet the requirements we have plainly spelled out on the dog's bio. But you know, in order to know what the dog needs the applicants have to actually read the bio. Gawd for-frikkin-bid. Can I tell you how many hours of my life I volunteered to looking at the answers these twits filled out on their applications looking for that perfect forever home? The foster parents, volunteers the lot of us, raise these foster dogs as our own. They are in our homes, sleep in our beds, rely on us for (very often extensive) medical treatment. The fact that many applicants don't even put out the effort to read the bio does nothing but piss us off. We aren't going to give you that dog until we know for a fact that you'll love it just as much as we do.

The job as reviewer is a thankless one but necessary. We get to filter the shit out and no one knows who we are or what we do. Nobody says thank you or good job. We have people volunteer for this job but they rarely stay and even those that do slack off and don't actually remember to review on time, or at all. It's very frustrating for Eilene to have to harass those of us on the crew to get on it so she can send the foster mom her good applications. In turn the rescue group in general always and a I mean always criticizes us and how we do our job. Specifically they take it out on Eilene. She took over this job some 5 years ago because back in the day it could take a dog up to 4 months after the applications had been made to actually get it's home. Many of the applicants by then had moved on and no longer wanted the dog. Can you blame them? She turned it around and made a system. It's not perfect but it works and it works well and is as fair as we can possible make it. Shy of having a dog for every applicant that is.

Why do we do it then? For the dogs, we do it for them. That kept Eilene going for many years through all the bs that goes along with rescue. Trust me, there's a TON of bs. I no longer do anything else for the rescue, I don't even look at the Yahoo lists where people bitch and moan back and forth. I'm waaay too inflammatory and I don't have that little check valve on my brain that tells you to shut up or you'll make things worse and piss people off. And I did, with little regret. Beotches the lot of them. Except Eilene.

Turns out she has had it with the ungrateful beotches, thank God. She's quitting the job as review crew coordinator the end of this year. The only reason that I stayed on was as her second, her support when she was on a trip and what not. They can find another moron for a victim. Eilene tried to get me to stay on, she said they'd need someone who knew how to do the job. Get real, those beotches want to fill all the posts with their own yes men. They have their own version of a good ol boys club and I won't touch it with a 10 ft pole. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. They have this thing where they want it done their way because their way is best. Because, you know, doing this for 5 years Eilene could not have possibly gotten anything right much less be doing it the best way.

Yeah you know what this is? This is me not letting the door hit me in the ass on my way out of it. Do I think some dogs are going to have to suffer for it? Maybe. Probably. But only in so far as they will stay in their foster homes longer. It's ok, their foster mommies love them so there are worse fates. Gotta make the break sometime and I think this is the best time. Lordy I am not going to miss this job, I hadn't stopped and thought about how long I'd been doing it until last night and you know what? 4 years is too long, I'm going to let someone else carry that torch. Damn freaky dog rescue people. Dec 31st I'm out!